Rajasthan Location and Physical Divisions: Extent, Aravalli, Thar

The correct answer is A, Odisha. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23 degrees 30 minutes north and crosses eight Indian states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Odisha is not one of them, because the whole of the state lies south of that parallel, its northern edge reaching only about 22 degrees 34 minutes north.

Option B, Jharkhand, is crossed in its Ranchi plateau belt, so it is one of the eight. Option C, Mizoram, is the easternmost of the eight states the line touches. Option D, Rajasthan, is crossed at its southern tip in Banswara district near Kushalgarh, which is the fact this chapter asks for; because the line only clips that corner, almost all of Rajasthan lies in the sub-tropical zone. Candidates who remember that Odisha is a tropical coastal state pick it as a state on the line, which is the trap here.

The correct answer is D, 342,239 square kilometres. Rajasthan covers 342,239 square kilometres, about 10.4 per cent of the area of India, and it has been the largest state of the country since Madhya Pradesh was divided and Chhattisgarh created in November 2000. The state stretches about 826 kilometres from north to south and about 869 kilometres from east to west.

Option A, 240,928 square kilometres, is the area of Uttar Pradesh, the fourth largest state. Option B, 307,713 square kilometres, is the area of Maharashtra, the third largest. Option C, 308,245 square kilometres, is the area of Madhya Pradesh, which stands second and is the figure most often confused with Rajasthan in a hurry. Remembering the order Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh for area, against Uttar Pradesh first for population, settles a whole family of questions.

The correct answer is B, 23 degrees 3 minutes north to 30 degrees 12 minutes north. Rajasthan lies between these parallels and between 69 degrees 30 minutes east and 78 degrees 17 minutes east longitude, which places the whole state in the north-western, sub-tropical part of India, with only its southern tip in Banswara touching the Tropic of Cancer.

Option A moves the state too far south, into the latitudes of Maharashtra and Telangana. Option C, 21 degrees 6 minutes north to 26 degrees 30 minutes north, is the latitudinal extent of Madhya Pradesh and is the favourite distractor in state papers, because both states share the Tropic of Cancer story. Option D pushes the northern limit to 32 degrees north, which lies in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond Rajasthan altogether. Fix the easy pair, 23 degrees in the south and 30 degrees in the north, and the question is quick marks.

The correct answer is C, Banswara. The Tropic of Cancer touches Rajasthan only at its southern extremity and crosses Banswara district near Kushalgarh. This is why the state is described as lying almost wholly in the sub-tropical zone, even though it is often grouped with the tropical states of western India.

Option A, Udaipur, lies north of the line, in the Aravalli and Mewar country. Option B, Dungarpur, is the district next to Banswara in the same Vagad region and is the closest distractor; the line runs just south of it. Option D, Sirohi, lies further west and holds Guru Shikhar, the highest peak of the Aravalli, but not the Tropic of Cancer. The pairing worth memorising is Banswara for the Tropic of Cancer and Sirohi for Guru Shikhar, since papers often put the two districts in the same set of options.

The correct answer is A, Sirohi. Guru Shikhar rises to 1,722 metres on the Abu hills, an outlying block of the Aravalli in Sirohi district, and is the highest point both of Rajasthan and of the whole Aravalli system. Ser and Delwara, the next highest peaks, stand on the same hills.

Option B, Udaipur, holds the Bhorat plateau between Kumbhalgarh and Gogunda, which is high ground but lower than Abu. Option C, Ajmer, has Taragarh hill, a well known fort hill in the middle Aravalli, and is the usual trap for candidates who recall that the range is broadest near Ajmer. Option D, Alwar, lies in the north-eastern Aravalli where the range has broken into low detached hills, so its summits are modest. Remember the chain Guru Shikhar 1,722 m, Sirohi, Abu hills, and the related fact that the range runs about 692 kilometres in all.

The correct answer is C, Jaisalmer. Rajasthan has an international boundary with Pakistan about 1,070 kilometres long, the longest held by any Indian state, and Jaisalmer accounts for the greatest part of it, roughly 464 kilometres. The boundary follows the Radcliffe Line of 1947 and runs through the driest part of the Thar.

Option A, Barmer, is the southernmost of the border districts and comes next to Jaisalmer in length. Option B, Bikaner, lies between Sri Ganganagar and Jaisalmer and has a shorter stretch. Option D, Sri Ganganagar, is the northernmost border district and the one watered by the Indira Gandhi Canal, so candidates often associate it with the frontier and choose it. The set to memorise, from north to south, is Sri Ganganagar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer, with Jaisalmer the longest and Rajasthan the state with the longest Pakistan border.

The correct answer is B, Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan touches five states, and of them Madhya Pradesh, lying to the south-east, shares the longest common boundary. The two states meet along the Chambal and the Hadoti country, which is why the Chambal ravines and the Deccan lava plateau continue from one state into the other.

Option A, Gujarat, lies to the south-west and takes the Aravalli onwards to Palanpur, but its boundary with Rajasthan is shorter. Option C, Punjab, lies to the north and shares the shortest of the state boundaries, around the Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh belt. Option D, Haryana, lies to the north-east and shares a moderate stretch across the Shekhawati and Mewat belts. The list worth fixing in order of direction is Punjab north, Haryana north-east, Uttar Pradesh east, Madhya Pradesh south-east and Gujarat south-west.

The correct answer is C, Chambal. The Great Boundary Fault runs along the Chambal valley in south-eastern Rajasthan and separates the Vindhyan rocks of the Hadoti plateau from the much older Aravalli system to its west. It is one of the major structural lines of peninsular India and explains the sharp scarps around Kota and Bundi.

Option A, the Luni, flows the other way, across the western sandy plain from the Naga hills near Ajmer to the Rann of Kutch, and is a river of the desert, not a structural boundary. Option B, the Banas, drains the eastern plains and joins the Chambal, but the fault is not named after it. Option D, the Mahi, flows through the southern Vagad region into Gujarat. Hold the pairing Great Boundary Fault with Chambal, and Vindhyan scarpland with Kota and Bundi, as the plateau questions are usually built on these two.

The correct answer is B, Sambhar. Sambhar is the largest saline lake of Rajasthan and of India, lying in the inland drainage tract on the eastern edge of the desert, where the Mendha and the Rupangarh end their course. Salt has been made from it for centuries, and it is also a listed wetland of international importance.

Option A, Pushkar, near Ajmer, is a small freshwater lake famous for its temple and fair, not for salt. Option C, Jaisamand in Udaipur district, is a large artificial freshwater lake built in the seventeenth century and is the distractor for candidates who read largest and think of surface area alone. Option D, Pichola, also at Udaipur, is a man-made freshwater lake of the Mewar rulers. Remember the saline group Sambhar, Didwana, Pachpadra and Lunkaransar, all of the western plain, against the freshwater group of the Aravalli and the eastern plains.

The correct answer is A, Jhalawar. The south-eastern plateau of Rajasthan has two parts: the Vindhyan scarpland of sandstone and the Deccan lava plateau, which is the Malwa plateau of basalt continuing into Rajasthan. That lava tract lies mainly in Jhalawar district, which is why the district has the deep black soils and the heaviest rainfall of the state, close to 100 centimetres.

Option B, Bundi, and option C, Kota, lie on the Vindhyan scarpland, where sandstone cliffs and the Chambal gorge dominate; Kota is the usual wrong choice because it is the best known Hadoti town. Option D, Baran, lies between the two tracts and carries scarpland as well. The clean pairing for the exam is Jhalawar for the Deccan lava flows, Kota and Bundi for the Vindhyan scarpland, and the Chambal for the Great Boundary Fault that divides the plateau from the Aravalli belt.

The correct answer is C, three-fifths. The Aravalli runs diagonally from the south-west to the north-east and splits Rajasthan into two unequal parts: roughly three-fifths of the state lies west of the range, in the sandy plain and the Thar, and about two-fifths lies to its east, in the plains and the plateau. The split explains the contrast in rainfall, population density and farming between the two halves.

Option A, one-fifth, and option B, two-fifths, understate the desert side; two-fifths is the share of the eastern half, so candidates who remember the figure but not the side pick it. Option D, four-fifths, overstates it and would leave almost no room for the eastern plains and the Hadoti plateau, which together hold most of the state's farmland. Learn the division as three-fifths dry west and two-fifths watered east, with the Aravalli as the line between them.

The correct answer is B, Luni. The Luni is the main river of western Rajasthan. It rises in the Naga hills near Ajmer, runs about 495 kilometres to the south-west through the Godwar belt and empties into the Rann of Kutch. Its water is sweet in the upper course and turns saline below Balotra, which is the detail papers like to test.

Option A, the Banas, is a river of the eastern plains and joins the Chambal, so its water reaches the Bay of Bengal. Option C, the Chambal, is the largest river of the state by basin and also flows to the Bay of Bengal through the Yamuna and the Ganga. Option D, the Kali Sindh, is another Chambal tributary of the Hadoti country. The three drainage systems to remember are the Bay of Bengal group led by the Chambal, the Arabian Sea group led by the Luni and the Mahi, and the inland group of the Kantli, Mendha and Sahibi.